So a Battle Smith can create it’s Iron Defender into the shape of an animal. Say, a wolf. As a totem Barbarian, you can also choose the wolf as your spirit animal.
I have no idea how viable a build like this is, but I absolutely love the flavor behind it. A magical fighter who’s spirit animal just so happens to be right next to them, an automaton fighting machine working in tandem with them. Is such a build possible without being COMPLETELY MAD?
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
You would have 2 stats to care about: Str and Int. You'd need heavy armor or a race with natural armor. How about Luxon from GMgtR? An elephant with wolves... Hmm...
This comment is purely from a min-max perspective and I am all for this from a flavor perspective:
The challenge is Rage and Battle Ready as well as the Smite spells conflict with eachother with one giving bonuses to damage with melee weapons. You only receive your bonus damage when attacking with a melee weapon using Strength, and Battle Ready let's you use Int. Obviously that is only a small thing, but the biggest knock is with Rage and all the Smite spells, the Battle Smith's bread and butter.
While raging you can't cast or concentrate on spells, so you won't be able to use any of your smite spells while raging.
This comment is purely from a min-max perspective and I am all for this from a flavor perspective:
The challenge is Rage and Battle Ready as well as the Smite spells conflict with eachother with one giving bonuses to damage with melee weapons. You only receive your bonus damage when attacking with a melee weapon using Strength, and Battle Ready let's you use Int. Obviously that is only a small thing, but the biggest knock is with Rage and all the Smite spells, the Battle Smith's bread and butter.
While raging you can't cast or concentrate on spells, so you won't be able to use any of your smite spells while raging.
Battle Ready lets you use Intelligence for magic weapon attacks as an option; you could still use Strength for melee. The rest of your point remains true, raging and spell-casting will still conflict.
Yea I know that Battle Ready is optional. My comments were from a min-max perspective and of the issues I brought up, the Battle Ready issue is the least "worrisome". From a min-max perspective you want every class features hitting on all cylinders. The fact that you are choosing not to use a class feature means it isn't 100% optimized.
Yea I know that Battle Ready is optional. My comments were from a min-max perspective and of the issues I brought up, the Battle Ready issue is the least "worrisome". From a min-max perspective you want every class features hitting on all cylinders. The fact that you are choosing not to use a class feature means it isn't 100% optimized.
Yeah, I misunderstood the intent of the comment, my apologies. The number of synergies between Barbarian and Battle Smith aren't many, but it's still a fun combination to ponder.
I eventually remembered that artificers can replicate gauntlets of ogre power and headband of intellect at level 12; and amulet of health, belt of hill giant strength, and bracers of defense at level 16. Would limit the number of barbarian levels you'd wanna take, use up at least one of your infusions, and there's still the rage/spellcasting conflict. But I think the Str. vs. Int. conflict now seems less and less like an issue for the combination.
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So a Battle Smith can create it’s Iron Defender into the shape of an animal. Say, a wolf. As a totem Barbarian, you can also choose the wolf as your spirit animal.
I have no idea how viable a build like this is, but I absolutely love the flavor behind it. A magical fighter who’s spirit animal just so happens to be right next to them, an automaton fighting machine working in tandem with them. Is such a build possible without being COMPLETELY MAD?
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
You would have 2 stats to care about: Str and Int. You'd need heavy armor or a race with natural armor. How about Luxon from GMgtR? An elephant with wolves... Hmm...
Heh, or Tortle. Definitely Tortle.
This comment is purely from a min-max perspective and I am all for this from a flavor perspective:
The challenge is Rage and Battle Ready as well as the Smite spells conflict with eachother with one giving bonuses to damage with melee weapons. You only receive your bonus damage when attacking with a melee weapon using Strength, and Battle Ready let's you use Int. Obviously that is only a small thing, but the biggest knock is with Rage and all the Smite spells, the Battle Smith's bread and butter.
While raging you can't cast or concentrate on spells, so you won't be able to use any of your smite spells while raging.
Battle Ready lets you use Intelligence for magic weapon attacks as an option; you could still use Strength for melee. The rest of your point remains true, raging and spell-casting will still conflict.
Yea I know that Battle Ready is optional. My comments were from a min-max perspective and of the issues I brought up, the Battle Ready issue is the least "worrisome". From a min-max perspective you want every class features hitting on all cylinders. The fact that you are choosing not to use a class feature means it isn't 100% optimized.
Yeah, I misunderstood the intent of the comment, my apologies. The number of synergies between Barbarian and Battle Smith aren't many, but it's still a fun combination to ponder.
I eventually remembered that artificers can replicate gauntlets of ogre power and headband of intellect at level 12; and amulet of health, belt of hill giant strength, and bracers of defense at level 16. Would limit the number of barbarian levels you'd wanna take, use up at least one of your infusions, and there's still the rage/spellcasting conflict. But I think the Str. vs. Int. conflict now seems less and less like an issue for the combination.